La telenovela: Personajes (IMS)

After our first book (Ricitos de Ónix) we began reading the short novel Quince by Jennifer Degenhardt. The book tells the story of Ximena, who about to turn 15, discovers that her biological dad has been in prison for 13 years! The short novel presents the celebration of Quinceañeras, which are of much significance amongst Spanish speakers in Latin América and in the United States. For many, this celebration marks the moment when a girl becomes a young woman. Over the years, Quinceañeras have been represented and have been at the center of Hispanic pop culture. One of these representations was the 1987 Mexican telenovela Quinceañera, starting Mexican actresses Thalía and Adela Noriega.

Inspired by our short, but dramatic, book Quince, and by the phenomenon that are telenovelas, for their last project of the trimester, students have embarked on the first of a series of four smaller projects that will come to an end in trimester 2. The first portion of their telenovela project, asked them to come up with at least three characters inspired by many of the types portrayed in telenovelas. For each of these characters, they had to complete a personal profile, write an iconic line, and take a posed photo of the character with their iconic object. In addition, they had to select one of their characters, and write a letter from their perspective.